This invention relates generally to safes and currency storage devices, and more particularly to portable currency holders accessible by a unique device quite unlike a common key.
The rise in popularity of casinos in the United States has highlighted that many recreational gamblers lack the discipline to retain a portion of their winnings while they continue to gamble. Since the long term odds favor the house, it is a fundamental rule of gambling that at least a portion of any winnings be retained and not be put at risk on subsequent wagers. But modern casinos are designed to maintain an atmosphere of gambling excitement, testing the resolve of most recreational gamblers and causing them to continue to risk their winnings, to the casino""s long term advantage.
The present invention is directed toward a solution for that lack of discipline. Although currency storage devices for securing paper currency and the like against immediate access by its user are known, there is a need for a device portable enough to be carried discretely in a gambler""s pocket, and that is accessible only by a special key, which ideally the gambler leaves at home or at least in a remote location. This disclosure allows a gambler to put a portion of his winnings (converted into currency) into a box where his jackpot is inaccessible. If he should encounter a subsequent losing streak he will be unable to access the winnings secured in the storage device until he returns home.
While the casino application is the most obvious one, the present invention is useful for securing paper currency and the like from others, as well as from the user. Travelers may use it while away from home to hide their cash from hotel chambermaids unaware of the contents of the device. Purse snatchers may discard it with a purloined purse for the same reason, giving the victim a chance at recovering her cash if the purse is found.
In accordance with the present invention, a portable device for holding paper currency is provided, comprising a base and a cover being moveable relative to one other and defining an interior compartment, a locking mechanism to prevent movement of said base relative to said cover, and escapement means for receiving paper currency and the like into said interior compartment. Separate from the currency holding device but necessary to non-destructively access its contents is a multi-faceted key comprising a body and projections therefrom adapted to disengage said locking mechanism of said currency storage device by depressing retractable pins of said locking mechanism, thus allowing said base and cover to move relative to each other and expose said interior compartment.
In the preferred embodiment described in detail below, the locking mechanism comprises retractable pins in the cover or base, and complementary holes in the other of said cover or base that receive the retractable pins when the cover and base are slideably engaged. The escapement means is a manual thumbwheel and an inlet ramp, each partially extending into a slot, said slot being in communication with both said interior compartment and the exterior of the device.
The thumbwheel and the inlet ramp act in concert to facilitate putting paper currency into the interior compartment through the slot but inhibiting its removal therethrough. The multi-faceted key of the preferred embodiment comprises a body equipped with fixed pins extending therefrom and so positioned as to be received through the holes of the cover to simultaneously urge the retractable pins of the base toward a retracted position, allowing the base and the cover to be slideably disengaged.